1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a table editing method and an apparatus thereof, which are capable of performing editing of graphics while displaying the graphics on a screen.
2. Description of the Related Art
A form may be used for such objectives as a notification, making a request or a commission, or giving or obtaining consent or permission. The form is prepared by a recipient of information, and given to an issuer of the information. An item is positioned within the form that the recipient is to fill in, i.e., an input item. The recipient fills in the items on the form with items that are required for the purpose, and delivers the completed form to the recipient, in either a hardcopy or an electronic format. Upon receipt of the completed form, the recipient engages in processing in accordance with the objective of the form.
A software package, such as ForumManager from imageWARE® (iWFM), exists that implements a form system that employs such forms in an electronic fashion. Such a package is referred to as an electronic form system. Taking iWFM as an example, such an electronic form system is built from a plurality of components, on a per process step basis.
The step wherein the recipient prepares the form, for example, is handed by an editing component, which involves having a user use a keyboard and a mouse to draw the form in a fixed graphic on a computer screen, and edit a location or a format of an input item thereupon.
The step wherein the issuer fills out the form may be divided into three stages: a step of receiving the inputted information from the issuer, a step of compositing the completed form from the inputted information and the form, and outputting the completed form to a device, such as a display or a printer. An input analysis component handles the first step, a compositing component handles the second step, and an output control component deals with the last step.
XML, short for Extensible Markup Language, is used as a standard for marking up of form data that is handled by the electronic form system. XML is configured of data and an identifier, known as a tag. The data is delimited by the tag, and the software handles the tag that is used in the delimiting, as well as the data that is delimited thereby. A tag may have its meaning or configuration defined by the user. The definition of a text configuration that is marked with the XML tag is described with a schema description language, such as XML Schema, which is a language described in XML that is being promulgated as a W3C recommendation. The namespace of XML Schema is defined at <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLschema>.
A significant advantage of XML is that it can be structured, which means, specifically, that properties such as the following are present:
The tags may be hierarchically nested;
A tag sequence may be defined:
A tag may be defined as either required or optional; and
A tag may be defined as to whether or not it repeatable, as well as a minimum or maximum number of iterations if it is repeatable.
Referring to a published XML schema when using XML to create a form allows a reduction in labor in the creation of the form. A software package exists that creates and edits a form by loading an XML schema, and displaying the tags defined in the XML schema thus loaded are displayed as a list in a graphical user interface (GUI) as components that may be positioned in the form. Refer to Japanese Patent Laid Open No. 05-134829, for example. Using a drag and drop mouse operation in the GUI, the user may position the tag that is displayed as the component into a desired placement in the form.
Given such conventional software for form creation and editing, the user has no need to know the XML schema that is used in the creation of the form. Nor does the user need to use a tag to create a form component. It is necessary, however, for the user to perform the involved work of laying out, i.e., designing the form, by selecting an appropriate component and positioning the component precisely in the form. It is necessary for the form to be designed to be positioned such that the input information is precisely categorized and organized, making the information comprehensible in order that the recipient is able to transition smoothly to successive processing upon receipt of the form. In many instances, the outputted form is reviewed by a human user, in addition to being processed electronically, and it can be difficult, if not impossible, to properly comprehend the content of the form if the positions of the items in the form are not precisely categorized and organized in the form. Designing a form with appropriately positioned items would also require the designer to exert no small amount of effort. The fact that the design is being done by human hands raises the specter of a form being created whose content cannot be easily comprehended, owing to the items therein not being appropriately positioned.